Hurricane Ike- Day 7- Tuesday 9-16-08

We slept so well last night. It was so cool it got down in the 60’s and there was a nice breeze coming through the windows. I absolutely loved it! However, since it was so chilly, the cold shower I had to take was not any fun. I couldn’t bear to get into the stream of water, so I used a wash clothe to take a shower. So did Nick. The water was so cold, it took our breath away!

We decided to go check out the damage around our area. As we left our apartment complex, we could not believe the trees that were down and blocking the road to get out. We had to drive around them just to get out! We drove over to Seabrook to check out my school. On the way over though, I was getting really nervous because there was so much damage in between our apartment and the school which is about 4 -5 miles away. Clear Lake is right in between the apartment and my school. We drove by several marinas and boats were all over the place. Some of the boats were wedged into places on land that you just wondered how in the world did that every get there! We drove past the first marina and there was a boat pushed right up to the edge of the road and it said, “Keep out, we shoot!”

There were trees down everywhere. I also learned that behind my school, all of the houses had at least 2 feet of water in them and a lot of them had over 4 feet of water. I was worried about my students because I wasn’t sure if I had any that lived there. At my school, we were surprised to find that it looked really well. There was just some debris outside and pushed up against the school, but no damage on the outside. We couldn’t go inside to check things out in there though. We drove around Kemah as well. As we drove over the bridge to get to Kemah from Seabrook, we noticed there was debris all along the side of the road. I had heard that there were boats and couches and all kinds of junk all over the road and that you couldn’t get through. I was glad to find the road open, but all of that stuff was just pushed to the side for the time being. It was difficult to see the boardwalk and we couldn’t go down and get in there because it was closed off. I could see that the Ferris wheel was pretty banged up.

Leaving our apartment complex

This palm tree lost it's top

The light signals were all messed up

One of the marinas that had a LOT of water damage

Boats all over the place and not where they're supposed to be

Some boats and debris that were pushed up closer to the road
This bucket was wedged into the fence at Miramar Park in Seabrook (Right behind my school)

The disc golf course at the park in Seabrook

Disc golf course

Nick found this couch just back in the park not that close to any houses

Huge tree uprooted at the park

Highway 146 inbetween Seabrook and Kemah, all of this was under water

One part of Kemah that everyone lost everything

Gas station sign down

Downed billboard that took power lines with it

The McDonald's right by our apartment- was closed for over 1 week

The tree right in front of our front door had a small branch break off

After looking at all of this damage around us, and so close to us, we realized just how much God blessed us and our belongings. All we could do was give thanks to God because it truly was a miracle that our apartment had survived so wonderfully.

We were able to get some ice, drinks, and some snacks today at HEB. There was no cold food and the grocery store was running on a generator so it was pretty dark in there with only a few lights on inside. When we got home, we had leftover pizza from Papa Johns. We sat around and were bored, so we decided to do some cleaning and tackled the spare bedroom closet to clean out and sort through the stuff. We ended up throwing so much junk away! It felt so good to clear some space. While we were doing this, we found some water spots on the ceiling in the corner of the spare bedroom and in the closet.

I picked up my car after that and it was fine. Brad had put it in their garage and he said that if he hadn’t put it in there, it would never have survived. Again, I was so blessed!

For dinner, I cooked some red potatoes and green bean stew on the grill. It was alright, but I wouldn’t want to eat it again. Many of our neighbors came home today and so we sat outside in our lawn chairs, cooking, eating, talking, and having a good time. It was almost like camping. One of our neighbors was grilling a whole bunch of chicken and we were wondering where he found that at knowing that all of the grocery stores had to throw away all of their cold foods and no one around here had power yet to keep any chicken good. We never found out.
Today turned out to be a pretty good day, and we were so glad to be home again! It stayed cool all day and it was cool when we were going to bed as well! Another great night of sleep!!